Now, now. I mentioned the possibility of photoshopping, too. But I think it was only an aesthetic touch up — getting rid of an extra spotlight to make the “X” logo.

‘Cause, you know, it’s the pixels.

The causeway is a public viewing site for shuttle launches and as a VIP site for shuttle and other launches on occasion, but is not open to the public for Delta IV launches, no.

Playalinda is no longer a nude beach from my understanding (there are signs out there last I saw).

As I recall the Causeway is closed for D-IV-H launches.

Naomi: My preference is for a flying disc, with large surface area to absorb (ground based transmitter)micro waves for the onboard power. Someday we will have to get away from mere rockets,,,

GAry 7

I can’t wait to see how far it goes in a decade or so.

” If half-naked 25 year old Euro-babes are your thing, you might enjoy a day there. “

Thanks for the warning.

Looks to me like a reflection off the lightning tower.

“those that should be naked are wearing bathing suits and those that should be wearing bathing suits are naked.”

One notable exception is the topless end of Orient Beach in SXM where the bars are. If half-naked 25 year old Euro-babes are your thing, you might enjoy a day there. It’s so prevalent my wife even makes jokes about it.

Generally, Merritt Island NWR and Playalinda close for Shuttle launches. Usually, the beach opens the next day and the NWR and hour after launch. Both the beach and refuge are located on NASA property. The south end of Playalinda is located close to pad 39B, so NASA routinely closes both the beach and the refuge for safety and security reasons.

That *may* not be true for the May mission, which will have a different launch profile than the northerly launches that are headed to the ISS National Laboratory. If I were to put money on it, however, I would expect it to close.

Do they still clear out all the visitors to the nudie beach at Playa Linda before a launch?

Great views from there.

Of the shuttles on the pads.

Anyway, I hope their engineering is as good as their PR.

BTW, I talked to some folks working on the Ares test launch and they say that it is merely a political launch and that it hardly resembles Ares I in any design configuration. One guy went so far as to call it a “waste of my time and the government’s money, and is meant just to show progress and little else.”

Manned launches are at KSC, with rare unmanned launches (tests for unmanned systems.)

CCAS is immediately south and it is where unmanned launches occur. It’s also where “The Cape” is, and the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse.

One can take a single step and go between KSC and CCAS, no rocks are needed.

Below that are Port Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, South Cocoa Beach and then Patrick Air Force Base. If you have ever seen I Dream of Genie, you probably remember the office building that they showed — that’s Patrick. There’s no place in Cocoa Beach that looks like where Major Nelson lived. And yes, we heard all of the jokes.

let me know how to build a vagina-shaped lifting system.

But there’s an example right there in the pictures – a system with an enveloping cradle snuggly mated with the rocket, appropriately called “an erector system” … oh, you meant a space lifting system!

So there is somewhere in the world where the word “tonne” doesn’t exist?

Yes, Sweden for one, since 1885 when we went metric. And we are still using it for convenience even though we moved on and adopted the SI system long since. (Tonne is, of course, a non-SI unit accepted for use.

In the beginning I thought the english use of french term tonne was an attempt of being cute, but I guess not. Well, better metric than imperial, I assume. And tonne doesn’t really hurt SI as some old related units do, say, cgs (“centi-metric”? , you wouldn’t loose a probe using it.